BOONE, N.C. - The App State women's basketball team will head to Statesboro, Ga. to take on Georgia Southern in its penultimate game of the 2024-25 regular season. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be available to stream on ESPN+.
Last Time Out
App State fell short to James Madison in Boone on Saturday, 83-57. Senior
Zada Porter led the Mountaineers with 14 points and six assists. Junior
Emily Hege also netted double-figures, scoring 13 points and knocking down three of App State's six 3-point buckets. The Black and Gold's top rebounder against the Dukes was junior
Rylan Moffitt, who pulled down seven.
Around the Mountain
Porter averages a team-high 10.7 points per game and has netted double-figures in 16 games this season. Additionally, she has been the Mountaineers' top scorer in nine games this winter. Moffitt and fellow junior
Elena Pericic lead App State in rebounds, pulling down an average 4.8 and 4.5 rebounds per game, respectively. Senior
Eleyana Tafisi continues to lead the Black and Gold in the assists category, dishing out 4.8 assists per contest.
In conference-only play, Tafisi holds steady as the league's leader in assists, averaging 5.4 per conference clash. App State continues to lead the Sun Belt in assists, averaging 16.44 per league game. The Mountaineers also rank third in made 3-pointers (8.0) and stand fourth in field goal percentage (42.4%), 3-point percentage (34.4%), and defensive rebounds (26.3).
The Mountaineers lead the SBC and round out the NCAA's top-50 in assists per game (15.9). App State stands second in the league in 3-point percentage (33.7%) and third in field goal percentage (42.4%), bench points per game (25.5), and defensive rebounds per game (26.4). The Black and Gold also ranks 26th in the NCAA in bench points per game. Tafisi remains the Sun Belt's leader in assists per game and ranks 46th in the NCAA in the category. She also stands sixth in assists (106). Porter remains sixth in the league in assists per game (3.6), while senior
Mara Neira checks in at seventh in 3-pointers per game (1.93).
Series History vs. Georgia Southern
App State hosted Georgia Southern on Jan. 25, grounding the Eagles, 60-56 in Boone. Four Mountaineers netted double-figures, led by Hege, who scored a season-high 14 points. Following Hege was Porter with 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Pericic netted 11 points and combined with Hege for six of App State's nine treys. The pair also combined for 10 rebounds. Moffitt scored 10 points and made two of App State's three blocks. Tafisi dished out a team-high six assists. The Mountaineers knocked down nine from the arc and held the Eagles to four 3-point buckets. Georgia Southern leads the series, 42-30.
Scouting Georgia Southern
Georgia Southern is 12-17 (4-12 SBC) this season. After falling short to the Mountaineers in Boone on Jan. 25, the Eagles dropped a pair of home contests to James Madison (Jan. 29) and Marshall (Feb. 1). The Eagles snapped its five-game losing streak with a 49-42 victory over Southern Miss (Feb. 5) and 60-36 win over Akron in the MAC-SBC Challenge (Feb. 8). Georgia Southern dropped a pair of contests to Coastal Carolina (Feb. 12 and Feb. 22) and defeated South Alabama, 95-69, on Feb. 15. The Eagles enter Wednesday's contest off a loss to Old Dominion, 68-66, on Feb. 22.
Nicole Gwynn and Indya Green are the Eagles' top scorers, averaging 13.0 and 12.1 points per game, respectively. Green is also the team's top rebounder, averaging 8.3 rebounds per contest. Nakiyah Mays-Prince averages 2.4 assists per game as well as 1.9 steals per game.
Gwynn ranks third in the Sun Belt in 3-pointers per game, averaging 2.3 per conference contest. Leah Johnson, who averages 1.4 blocks per SBC game, stands fourth in the league. Georgia Southern ranks third in 3-point percentage (35.0%) and rounds out the top-five in offensive rebounds (12.9) as well as assists (13.19).
Johnson ranks third in the league and in the NCAA's top-85 in blocks (39) and blocks per game (1.39) this season. Green checks in at third in the Sun Belt in rebounds (242) as well as rebounds per game. Gwynn stands fourth in the conference in free throws with 85 on the season. Georgia Southern ranks fourth in the Sun Belt and 36th nationally in offensive rebounds per game (13.9). The Eagles also round out the league's top five in rebounds per game (39.1), steals per game (9.1), and turnovers forced per game (17.9).
On the Horizon
The Mountaineers will cap the 2024-25 regular season on Friday with a 5 p.m. clash against Coastal Carolina in Conway, S.C. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.
